Beginning of my remote year abroad and thinking of the future

 I was able to travel to Florence, Italy at the end of 2020 to start my year abroad and complete my marketing internship largely unaffected by the pandemic. The rest of my year aboard is up in the air. Since the discovery of the UK variant of the coronavirus, the Spanish government aren’t allowing non-residents into the country. The date at which this is scheduled to end has changed three times already so I’m kept on standby waiting to learn if and when I can travel.

I feel like I will be expected to pick up my suitcase and go as soon as travel restrictions are eased. But as my fear of the virus varies and having already lost over a hundred pounds on a non-refundable flight , I’m in no rush.

Fortunately, I can start my marketing internship remotely. I’m not exactly sure how I ended up doing marketing internships for both my placements. I just looked for language schools that offered internships and language lessons as remuneration and hoped for the best. Its worked for me thus far. I’m still at odds with online learning but it would be rude and stupid of me not to use an expensive resource that is being given to be for free.

From my placements I’m seeing first-hand the high cost of learning another language. Yes, I’m paying a high price to study languages at university, but I never see the tuition fees, so I don’t feel like I spending any money nor is the amount I pay different to any other degree choice. Most people at language schools are attending to add something else to their repertoire.

 Students of all ages travel from across the globe to attend language schools to benefit from the immersive experience. They spend money on language lessons, accommodation, food and in some cases visas. Thanks Brexit. It is costly to say the least. There are many financial barriers to entry to learning another language outside of a compulsory school setting.

Still, mature students need to learn to basics. So as I sit and try to come up with interactive and informative social media posts, I wonder how to make them applicable to a range of ages and language levels, what things I struggled with grammatically in the past that are now almost second nature.

Coming up with  promotional social media posts regardless of language isn't easy.

I am part the generation that seems to love social media the most, but it’s never been my thing. Each platform I use, I fall out of love with about a year later. Most recently I’ve given up on Twitter. The witty jokes on the site, that continually prove that we are all living the same life, are no longer enough to cancel out people’s toxic opinions and refusal to have open minded discussions. What’s worse, Twitter still might be one of the better places for these conversations.

Even though I have some content creation aspirations, as I continue to find my footing with social media more as both a consumer and creator, it’s reaffirmed my belief that I couldn’t do it full time. Views, clicks and impressions aren’t true indicators of skill nor quality of content. No matter how well thought out social media posts are or if you use all of the “right” hashtags there is no guarantee of engagement.

Yet, they control people’s livelihoods.

Continuing to affirm what I don’t want to do, has sent me down a brief spiral of trying to figure out what exactly I do want to do. A couple quizzes later, offended at the idea that I should be a solicitor or stockbroker, I’ve decided that it’s okay I don’t know for now.